{"id":252,"date":"2021-08-13T04:22:16","date_gmt":"2021-08-13T04:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/?page_id=252"},"modified":"2023-03-25T00:06:39","modified_gmt":"2023-03-25T00:06:39","slug":"system-8","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/system-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Roland AIRA System-8 \ud83e\uddfb\ud83e\uddfb\ud83e\uddfb\ud83e\uddfb\ud83e\uddfb"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s most gratifying to see Roland Corporation take note of my comments regarding the System-1m<\/a> \u2013 surely so, as each has been addressed exactly to my specification. There is now a control to dim the green lights \u2013 it requires at least 5 hours to blind a test rat where it previously took 30 minutes max. Switches and doodads are all placed at the back, and there is a reasonable number of memories displayed on the sensible LCD display which also tells you what the control you just diddled did. Let that be a lesson to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If I have any major critique, it\u2019d be that it\u2019s not very usable on stage, being so black you can see your face in it. The machines it replaces \u2013 the Jupiter 8 et al. are colourful and with good reason \u2013 you can see what you\u2019re doing. I\u2019ve got a lamp directed at it but it seems to gobble up light and spit it back out as green circles. Chlorophyll?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I did say replaces. I mean that. I mean that as far as music making goes you\u2019d be hard pressed to find a reason to hang on to your \u2018legendary\u2019 Roland keyboards. Up the end of this I\u2019ll try give you a list of what is worth hanging onto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you switch between the main synthesis software and the two free \u2018plug out\u2019 emulations \u2013 the Jupiter 8 and Juno106 \u2013 it\u2019s interesting to see the lights go out for each. The System 8 is a 2 oscillator + Sub oscillator device with some extra features \u2013 notably sideband filters and extra wave forms. The Jupiter loses the extras and the Sub, the Juno drops down to just one oscillator. It\u2019s as if you\u2019re switching off parts of the computer brain a la HAL9000, and I came to see little point to doing it. Because the System-8 is a super-set of the older machines, it does all they did, and far more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Does it sound like a Jupiter 8 or JUNO106? You can dial those up if you like. If Roland wanted to illustrate their reasons for never going back to the old models they\u2019ve done an excellent job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does it sound like the System-1? Mostly. You\u2019ll see two filter settings, one for reproducing the S1\u2019s filters and \u2018improved\u2019 S8 filters. The oscillators are identical. The LFO has some extra weird and wonderful modes. The Sub is also available for LFO duties as on the S1. The sideband filters are interesting but really are fixed flanges with a fancy name. More effects, which are welcome. Very similar, but better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does it sound like a Good Roland? One of the things I noticed about the Boutiques<\/a> was the extra bass and treble, much higher than say the JP8080<\/a>. You need to boost EQ on the JP8080 all the way to get the same timbre. But the S8 is already there, especially with the Tone knob set one way or the other. This is a full Aira product and so goes up into the dog howling frequencies without the aliasing you get from the little boxes. For their part the Boutiques seems to be able to make nastier sounds by their limitations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The S8 does the \u2018Roland chocolate\u2019 sounds. It passes my \u2018make a noise like a Kawai 100F<\/a> test\u2019 by using the cross modulation. It does everything you want\u2026 as long as you don\u2019t go past 1987. At that point the S8 has nothing to say, and all the reasons people went on to newer machines are all still there. You get no digital wave forms (as on the JD series) \u2013 you can pretend to despise them, but too soon you\u2019ll lament their absence. The little SH32 <\/a>can make some sounds the S8 can\u2019t reach. The Fantom <\/a>can go places that the S8 can\u2019t even sketch. Even a D50<\/a> has some advantages (sound editing not one of them).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UPDATES<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Since birth the machine has had a pleasant number of updates to the waveforms and the filters. Most of these attempt to create DX7 style FM sounds – and it’s a pretty good effort. There are also some very fun flange\/phase combinations with some gritty noise bits thrown in. It’s still not a digital sounding machine – you would go for the JD-XA<\/a> <\/a>for that. I did. It is able to cook more than Roland Pies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sell your old keys, keep the young ones. Get rid of that old Juno before it gets too wobbly (in which case you can use a CONDITION menu setting for how wobbly the machine you\u2019re emulating) and use the money to buy some strong lamps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s most gratifying to see Roland Corporation take note of my comments regarding the System-1m \u2013 surely so, as each has been addressed exactly to my specification. There is now a control to dim the green lights \u2013 it requires at least 5 hours to blind a test rat where it previously took 30 minutes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[30,4],"class_list":["post-252","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","tag-aira","tag-virtual-analogue"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/252\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}